The growing role of technology in the hospitality industry means it is more crucial than ever to properly budget technology investments for 2023. Thomas Small, Global Enterprise Sales Director at Silverware POS, and Warren Dehan, President of Maestro PMS, property management software, spoke with Michele Dawn Mooney about the technology investments hospitality businesses should make in 2023.

“Technology has been a part of the hospitality industry for a long time,” Dehan said. “But the adoption, and the pace in which things have changed over the last two to five years, we’ve seen tremendous pace in introducing technologies that bring the user experience to the guest.”

And that expectation is driven by guests and fuels technology innovation in the hospitality space. “Guests want that same interaction, that same level of interface with the hotels,” Dehan said of a guest’s desire to utilize their phones with the services of a hotel or restaurant. “Not everyone wants to go to a front desk; not everyone wants to call for a reservation. They just want to do it on their device.”

Small said that having the right technology for today’s restaurants means the difference between success and failure. “We’re in an industry with a high failure rate, and technology is key to handling that challenge.”

Small said mobile ordering is one technology solution vital in today's restaurant industry. "Give your guests the ability to place their own orders, adjust their orders, and track them all from their mobile devices. Regarding integration in hotel environments, being able to check what your charges are to a POS system without engaging hotel staff. And something important regarding integration with other systems is more seamless integrations like we have with Maestro. That's key: when you have several different tools, how well do they talk to each other, and can you present to your staff, business, and guests a cohesive digital ecosystem?”